From the CDC’s new estimate that 1 in 50 school children have autism, to a new model for healthcare where doctors respond to emails 24 hours a day, here are the top five nursing news stories that we think are worth a read this week:

Skip the Waiting Room – the Doctor is Online

Dr. Jay Parkinson is the founder of Sherpaa, a website that acts as a virtual doctor’s office. Patients can call or email 24 hours a day and a doctor responds immediately. “We’re using the Internet to reinvent health care,” said Dr. Parkinson. Read more from The New York Times.

As Chronic Conditions in Children Rise, School Nursing Faces Cuts

While the National Association of School Nurses recommends one nurse to every 750 well students, many states are falling far short of this goal. The worst offender, Michigan, has one school nurse for every 4,411 students. “The school nurse is absolutely essential in every single school in every single state in the country,” said former school nurse Judy Hightower, PhD, MEd, RN, dean of academic operations at Chamberlain College of Nursing’s Phoenix campus. “We are having kids with more and more complex problems, and there needs to be somebody in the school who can handle those kinds of things.” Read more from ADVANCE for Nurses.

Future Looks Bright for Healthcare Grads

The need for healthcare professionals continues to grow, with a particular need for advanced practice nurses. Demand is increasing “virtually across the board,” says Susan Salka, chief executive of AMN Healthcare, the country’s largest health care staffing and recruiting company by revenue. “And we are expecting it to become more robust in the next couple of years.” Read more from U.S. News & World Report.

Healing the Doctor/Nurse Divide

In an editorial, oncology nurse Theresa Brown argues it’s essential for doctors and nurses to work well together—or it will be the patient who suffers. “The power differential in hospitals is such that if a doctor chews out a nurse it tends to make her less likely to speak up the next time. Because successful health care needs to be interdependent, the silencing of nurses inevitably creates more opportunities for error,” she wrote. Read more from The New York Times.

Number of Children with Autism Significantly Higher Than Thought

A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that 1 in 50 school children have autism, updated from previous estimates of 1 in 88 children. “This will have implications for health care providers and school systems,” said Stephen Blumberg, a health scientist with CDC′s National Center for Health Statistics. Read more from CNN.

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